Excitonic Effects and Impurity–Defect Emission in GaAs/AlGaAs Structures Used for the Production of Mid-IR Photodetectors

Abstract

A series of undoped GaAs/Al_xGa_{1 –x}As multiple quantum well heterostructures, whose doped analogs are used for the production of photodetectors operating in the spectral range 8–12 μm, is fabricated by molecular-beam epitaxy. For the heterostructures, the spectral position of absorption lines corresponding to the allowed transitions between quantum-confined electron and hole levels in GaAs layers is established. The influence of impurity–defect states on the luminescence and absorption spectra of quantum wells is studied. The excitonic corrections for the allowed transitions are determined in relation to the quantum-well width and the aluminum content in the barrier layers. The role of excitonic effects in restoring the structure of single-electron states from interband-absorption spectra (luminescence-excitation spectra) and the relationship between these states and the working region of IR photodetectors based on GaAs/Al_xGa_{1 –x}As quantum wells are discussed.